Sand Springs middle school students are finalists for award

(Auburn, New York-AP) -- Four students and their teacher at Clyde Boyd Middle School in Sand Springs are finalists for the Christopher Columbus Awards.<br/><br/>Seventh-graders Austin McGinis, Laura McGee,

Thursday, May 6th 2004, 4:17 pm

By: News On 6

(Auburn, New York-AP) -- Four students and their teacher at Clyde Boyd Middle School in Sand Springs are finalists for the Christopher Columbus Awards.

Seventh-graders Austin McGinis, Laura McGee, Dylan Nall and Jennifer Proctor and science teacher John Gisler are among eight finalists.

The group developed a color-coded alarm system to warn the deaf and hard of hearing who can't hear storm or fire alarms. The color codes are activated by the sound alarms.

The team receives a $200 grant to help develop the system and will compete for the grand prize June 19th through 24th in Florida.

Two Gold Medal winning teams will be chosen with each member getting a $2,000 US Savings Bond. The championship winner will get a $25,000 grant from the Columbus Foundation to continue developing their idea.